The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-07-20


NAMED in his hands but few minutes.
His friend, the steeple- jack, was suffer-
ing from rheumatism and had sent to
borrow some pills; he had sent him the
whole boxful. The steeple-iac was
working on a steeple in the next street.
These steeple-jacks are men who
have curious occupation. Dangling
from long ropes, they follow the dam
gerous business of repairing steeples.
1t was thus that Dr. Inderwick found
his man; he seemed hundreds of feet
above him, and hardly larger than a
crow.
Hallol" shouted the doctor from
the ground.
"Hallol" came down in a far-away
voice.
Have YOU got those - pills?"
shouted the doctor, separating his
words to make them clearer.
Yes" aswered the far-away voice.
Observation-Disclosures
might.
BY this time quite a crowd had col
lected. They could see the steeple-
jack making some motions, as if search
ing his pockets. Then the faint voice
came down again: 81 left them at
home in my other coat"
DIR. Inderwick ran to the steeple-
jacks home. He could not spare mo-
ment to satisfy the curiosity of the
crowd, nor even of the newspaper re-
porter who had now arrived on the
scene. " / shall not find them there,
l shall not find them there" he kept
saying to himself, as he rushed down
| the street.
The crowd saw him disappear within
the steeple- jacks door, and almost inn
mediately come out and rush off in
another direction. No, he had not
found them there. The steeple- jacks
wife had sent off the coat which her
husband left at home to a repairer
that morning, and of all repairers IN
the city, of whom there were probably
a dozen, this coat with the box of pills
in it had gone to the tailor, Mr.. Stack
pole, who had eleven children, all with
frantic appetites for candy.
" For the love of mercy, Stackpole,' y
said the doctor, bursting into the tailor's
shop the moment he reached there,
" show me the coat you are repairing
for Mr.. Cummings, the steeple- jack!
1t has box of poisonous pills in the
pocket which for two hours l have
been chasing from place to place all
over the city. Don't tell me you haven't
the coat; I'd rather you'd shoot me on
the spot"
d" beg you to take seat and quiet
yourself, doctor; the pills are safe"
replied Mr.. Stackpole.
The doctor sank into a chair. Show
them to me at once, Stackpole,' he said
d" 1 cannot do that, DOCTOR" replied
Mr.. Stackpole, :" as have already sent
the pills away. You see when | hung
up the steeple-jack's coat they tumbled
out of the pocket, and | supposed they
fell from the pocket of yO,u coat, which
was also hanging alongside. So put
them in the pocket of your coat, which
| had just finished repairing, and sent
it by my boy to your house."
{" 1t is strange" said DR.. Inderwick
" but put on that very coat just be-
fore left home"
Yes, replied Mr.. Stackpole; "
sent it back Just two hours ago"
And you put the pills"
" In the tail pocket"
"Then they must be there still"
They must be there STILL" repeated
Mr.. Stackpole.
"And while / have been rushing
around these two hours l have had
them all the time in my own pocket -
said DR.. Inderwick, feeling in his coat.
tails behind.
There they were indeed, the whole
thirty-four, safe in their boX.-XenOS
CLARK, in Harper's Young People.